Fiber art: If you’re so inclined, fiber art is a fun an interesting way to express yourself and explore your topic. It is tactile and beautiful. Here’s an example of what one person did to illustrate the topic of social media. Use google to search “fiber art” and your topic, and view some examples. Please include a one-paragraph explanation with your project.
Photography: There are a lot of things you can do with photography, but photography is most interesting when you’ve done something WITH the images, not simply taken some random photos. You should curate your photos and give me a one-paragraph explanation of how your project connect to your other two assignments, the personal essay and research paper. Example of a photography project from one of my past students. Example of an essay and photographs (some found photographs). Unless you combine photography and essay, please include a one-paragraph explanation with your project.
Audio or Video: Audio performances are also a fun and interesting way to express yourself. Here’s an example of an audio performance one of my students made in response to the topic of “walking.” You can also look up the work of Canadian artist Janet Cardiff for inspiration. Short videos or digital storytelling can also be powerful and make use of your personal narrative. Here are some examples: The Cajon; Personal Narrative; Dear Grandma. See the Story Center and other digital storytelling resources online (search “digital storytelling”). Please include a one-paragraph explanation with your project if it isn’t clear from the audio or video.
Painting, sculpting, collage, drawing, graphic art: Any of these traditional (and underground, in the case of graphic work) is encouraged. A friend of mine works on a form called COMIX, meaning poetry and graphic novels combined. She uses paper cut outs, which anyone can do, to make her images. Take a look here for her work on species extinction, but there are many other examples online if you put in the search terms (painting, sculpting, etc.) above. Please include a one-paragraph explanation with your project.
Podcasts: Podcasts are wonderful ways to express yourself creatively and reuse some of the material you’ve already worked with in exploring your topic. Here’s an example of one podcast from a former student. Please do not buy fancy mics or even download apps. All you need is your phone and some kind of editing software (Audicity is free and easy to use). Here’s a link to royalty-free music. There are plenty of “How To” make a podcast sites online, but if you listen to podcasts, you probably already know the basics. Since your podcast will no doubt explain the connection between the topic and the podcast itself, no accompanying explanation is necessary.
I’ve also had students sew clothes, make a children’s book, make a series of block prints, construct an imaginative map, write a sonnet cycle of 100 poems (really!), and many more interesting projects through the years. So please use your imagination and run your idea by me if you haven’t already.
There are dozens of ways of citing sources. The citation style you choose sometimes depends on the academic discipline involved, or it can be personal preference, or a mixture of both. Here are some of the most common. Explore these and choose one for your paper.
“Do Sidewalks Talk”
“Toward a Recovery of Nineteenth-Century Farming Handbooks”
Casey N. Cep, A Thousand Words: Writing from Photographs
Common Mistakes in Citing Sources
40 Useful Words and Phrases for Top-Notch Essays
Integrating Quotes and Paraphrases in Research Papers
Sample Outline “Traveling in Wilderness”
Essay (proofs) written from outline “Traveling in Wilderness”
John McPhee, Structure
Types of Research Essays
Comma splice, What is a comma splice?
How to Avoid a Common Comma Error: The Comma Splice
How to Use Quotation Marks (with other punctuation)
Verb Tense Consistency at the sentence level, the paragraph level, and the essay level
